July 4, 2012

PAWTUCKET â€” Lacey Middlebrooks arrived in this city, fully expecting to see brother Will Middlebrooks hone his craft with the Pawtucket Red Sox while fulfilling her internship requirements with the Triple-A ball club.
Borrowing from an idiom, â€śThe best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.â€ť Yes, there is a Middlebrooks presently at McCoy Stadium, yet instead of someone making connections with fans seated behind the outfield fence, this particular Middlebrooks is building a rapport as a pre-game, on-field coordinator and press box contributor.

July 4, 2012

CUMBERLAND â€“ Add the ages of the second- and third-place finishers together and you would get 39, the age of the winner of the 44th edition of the Arnold Mills Road Race.
As 23-year-old Scott Twardowski and Colin Tierney, 16, learned on Fourth of July Wednesday, thereâ€™s still plenty of life left in the feet of Chris Magill, now a six-time champion of the holiday running event. The individual title â€“ achieved in 21:06, which was 13 seconds better than Rehobothâ€™s Twardowski and 21 seconds quicker than East Greenwichâ€™s Tierney â€“ represents the first for Magill since 2006.

July 4, 2012

By

By RUSS OLIVO

CUMBERLAND â€“ Portola Packaging, Inc. will shut down its Portola Tech International cosmetics container division by the end of August, releasing all of its employees and liquidating manufacturing equipment.
The division is based at Portola Techâ€™s Martin Street plant and at another manufacturing facility in Nanhai, China, which employ a combined 225 workers, including 51 locally, a spokeswoman for human resources said.
Workers were apparently caught off-guard when they learned they were being let go several days ago.
â€śItâ€™s shocking,â€ť the spokeswoman said.

July 4, 2012

By

Ernest A. Brown

Enjoying a Fourth of July pizza party before the start of the annual fireworks
display at Tucker Field in Cumberland Tuesday night, Kersten Brothers, 14, Timothy Brothers, 12, and Makenzie Brothers, 10, of Cumberland, with Danielle Cournoyer, 11, of Woonsocket, from left, relax before the celebration begins.